Reviews with content warning for Violence - Spinning Silver

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

76 reviews

directorpurry's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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vigil's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

hmmm. okay. so, subjectively i enjoyed this book, but i love fairytale-esque novels and inhuman boyfriends so in some ways i was very easy to please. objectively, i have several issues.

this book is the definition of "well done, but didn't need to be done at all" let's start with irina

her plotline felt like an entirely different book that was weaved into the base story of miryem's plotline for padding, and while i didn't dislike it, not do i think it was poorly done, it felt highly unneeded. she mostly seemed to exist to introduce the antagonist of the novel chernobog, i don't think that was the required way, nor the best way to introduce him. he felt do distanced from miryem, and her storyline, that when they intersected, i couldn't invest in it too much beacause i felt very little personal stakes on her behalf. it should have been miryem encountering and dealing with chernobog primarily. not to mention i felt like irina's prescence sent the plot of the rails, she's clearly only there for the sake of introducing the villian, who also didn't really need to be here in my opinion. the staryk king was a good enough antagonist. but if we must go with chernobog i would've preferred a different implementation. something more grounded in the already established plot with miryem and wanda (who should have gotten the plot importance that irina had) or in all honesty, introduce the witch character that was spoken of and whose house the characters occupied. that was a massively missed opportunity in my opinion.

and the sheer amount of unneeded povs.

i've already discussed irina, but did we need her husband, nanny, and stepon's povs??? no, we did not. again, not poorly done, naomi novik's pen game will not be denied here, but we simply didn't need to do it. also, the middle dragged quite a bit. i feel like cutting some pov's and centering miryem and wanda's stories would've assisted that.

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bethann_coleates's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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booklifeisthelife's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I really enjoyed this book, the world, the characters and all the small details. It has six povs which I enjoyed (all which varying frequently) so you really did get to know the characters. However two main problems I had with this book. One was the writing which was otherwise good if you ignore the excessive use of "and" and the run ons. Once I was able to get used it it wasn't so bad but it really did bother me so I docked a .5 but the thing that took a whole 1 off was the ending. I did not like the one part of, the ending for the one main character. I liked most of the characters ending and was happy for them but the one really bothered me. Without getting into specific, they forced a "romance" that I felt wasn't a thing. There was no build up, no tension, no gradual feelings developing besides respect on the male's side. But the romance just..wasn't there yet they forced an ending in that direction which kinda ruined it for me. Nice fantasy world but I would have liked a little more informatio about the other kingdom. I still really loved the book and I struggled choosing between 3.5 and 4.

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starlit_pathways's review

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adventurous hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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bmbriar's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is an immaculately written book. It feels just like a classic fairytale, in both the narrative prose and the dialogue, yet it is very clearly an adult book. The characters are beautifully drawn, once again feeling like fairytale characters while also having depth and nuance that is often missing from fairytales.

Romance is not a large component of the book at all, but I was still fearful that it would spoil the reading experience for me, since the trope is far from a favourite of mine, but it was executed so well that I was really rooting for Miriyem and the Staryk King by the end.

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diasg's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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ink_and_wings's review against another edition

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adventurous dark inspiring mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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ernis's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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madmadmaddymad's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize I was reading a Rumplestiltskin retelling. I was all the way at the wedding of Miryem’s cousin, and watching the fight between the demon and the Staryk before “Tell me your name!” “Never!” Felt like anything other than a quirk of their fantasy race. That being said, I loved the way all the pieces of this story unfolded and came together.

Wanda’s story moved me to tears at several points. I loved when she first learned from Miryem how to do the debt collecting, and she called adding numbers together “magic.” For Wanda, anything sufficiently remarkable is magic, and Miryem, even in the mortal world, was a sufficiently remarkable woman. The book had a really good juxtaposition of the ordinary with the fantastic, and Wanda, watching it all come to pass really made me feel like lots of things can be magic… I was crying during the entire last chapter, when Miryem called her “sister” and Sergey and Stepon “brothers”

Oh, and I LOVED the love story and how it genuinely snuck up on me. I am a simp for fae and monsters, and even though I got to the wedding and the three storerooms of silver-to-gold, the fight between the two evil husbands, and watching the demon carry the Staryk away, I thought, “Oh. Bummer.” Because I was a little bit rooting for them to fall in love.

AND THEN. Like I was having a dream…!

Miryem returns to free the Staryk!

And he *asks* to court her in the mortal way!

Oh! And Irina and Mirnatious! The way she saved him with the silver ring was so satisfying!!!!!!!! AND HE THOUGHT SHE WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING IN THE WORLD!

Just such a wonderful, wonderful read. Definitely a top 10 of all time for me. 5 stars, and it deserves more, to be honest.

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